[Asterisk-Users] G.729 licensing/patent?

[Benjamin on Asterisk Mailing Lists]

On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 23:55:15 +0200, Damjan <gdamjan at mail.net.mk> wrote:
> If I'm not mistaken, if you patent a device (aparatus) you can't be so
> vague in the patent wording and have to submit a prototype too...
> doesn't that mean that if my device doesn't in any way resemble the
> prototype I'm clear from patent infrigement?

You *are* mistaken!

There is no such requirement as to submit a prototype and your device
will infringe on a patent as soon as any component it uses or method
it applies falls under *any* claim in the patent specification's list
of claims.

As to how vague and how specific a patent can be, well, patents are
both specific and vague. Patent attorneys are trained to word the
specification accordingly. There is no limitation on how many claims
you can have in a patent application. A well drafted patent
specification will have a number of claims for the same thing going
from specific to vague. If the applicant is unlucky, the examiner will
throw out some of the more vague claims leaving the remainder of the
claims untouched. Thus the examination will become instrumental to
find out just how vague you can be. It would be a very bad attorney to
draft an application that is thrown out in its entirety because all
claims are too vague, that simply doesn't happen.

rgds
benjk

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